Description
The general goal of the project is to strengthen the protection of the environment through law, support provided by active citizens and by building up an active citizens’ community. To achieve it, following means are to be used: raise public awareness of public participation in the environmental decision-making procedures and motivate people to participate; providing follow-up legal counselling to active citizens and systemic legal and expert support to local initiatives dealing with cases of strong public interest; and involving young law students while leading them to adopt important values.
Summary of project results
The main project’s objective was to provide continuous and systematic legal support to active citizens and local civil society groups in cases of environmental protection. While there are many people and initiatives committed to protection of the environment, both at local and national level, they often lack necessary legal know-how that would help them effectively exercise their rights. They usually cannot afford paid legal help, which is where Frank Bold steps in with its free legal counselling centre. In addition to the centre itself, where we answer clients’ inquiries via phone, email, online form, or in person, we also provide legal education in relevant topics and long-term support to selected local groups (partners). We also regularly update online manuals which are publicly available on our website. During the project, we provided a professional legal advice to 300 clients of the counselling centre, helping them with a variety of cases such as prevention of negative environmental impacts in their communities. More than 2000 citizens regularly receive our newsletters in which we offer legal tips and advice while also sharing success stories and examples of good practice. This helps further multiplication of the project results and outcomes. As a part of the project, we also involved our interns—law students. In total, 27 interns participated in the running of the counselling centre and provided legal support to our partners. In addition, one of the project activities specifically aimed at awareness raising and civic engagement in the issue of air pollution and air quality. This activity allowed the target group, i.e. people affected by air pollution, to actively participate in the process of environmental impact assessment and other related mechanisms. By doing so, the beneficiaries learnt how to effectively exercise their rights, they received regular updates about the situation, and obtained professional legal support. We believe that in the long term, such activities contribute to increased citizens’ participation in public matters including, but not limited to, environmental protection. To conclude, all foreseen project activities were successfully carried out which led to achieving the set goal, i.e. improving the standards of environmental protection in the Czech Republic through strengthening civil society and providing it with relevant (legal) tools.
Summary of bilateral results